Illustration by Mirko Ilic, courtesy of Village Voice. (linked, because they don’t let you embed unless they’re the referer)

GW wants to amend the U.S. Constitution to outlaw non-man/woman marriages, based upon literal interpretations of the bible, which of course contravenes the first amendment separation of church and state. While we’re being literal, here’s are some more amendments GW should consider.

If there are no acceptable men to be found in the town, a woman shall ply her father with wine and have sex with him in order to produce progeny to carry on the family name (Gen. 19:31-36).

Personally, I’ve always enjoyed the second amendment, the right to wear short sleeves.

The ABA have decided to cancel the temporary license for Sydney based community TV station C-31. Community media, such as radio and television, are an important independent and alternative voice to the mainstream media. Think of them as a local mini-ABC or SBS. The ABA have granted the UHF 31 permanent license to TVS (Television Sydney), an organisation of academic institutions, including AFTRS (Australian Film Television and Radio School), who while having extensive television background, have never been involved in community television. Meanwhile, C-31 will be forced off air for 8 months until TVS are up and running. Here’s a SMH story about the cancellation which leans slightly towards C-31, written by UTS journalism student Sunanda Creagh.

While C-31 have done a fair job holding the frequency for these past however many years, perhaps it is time we started to take community television seriously. I’m not saying that an AFTRS affiliated group is the best way to go, but it must be a step forward from C-31 whose web site was last updated in 1995, or you can go to their non-existent…

much more official-looking CTS home page

There is also a transitional 1996 CAT TV web site, which points you to the correct non-existent web site.

In a 4 September 2003 response to the ABA, C-31 explained their lack of minutes for the past 4 years (Q2.2), no clear program approval policy (Q2.3/Q2.10), and inequality in voting rights (Q2.4), amongst others. I’m not sure who to blame, but the members should be up in arms about not just failing to get a license, but their board failing to meet a number of minimum requirements for the existence of a community based group.

Community television in Australia has had a long history, but until now, the ABA haven’t assigned or taken seriously, the need for a permanent and professional looking community television station. OptusVision came close, when as part of their cable license, Optus were required to fund a community cable station, which was run in-house. Unfortunately it went under with Optus cable.

In Melbourne, in what has seemed to be a succession of channel 31 groups over the last two decades, there is Channel 31, who have a fucked up frames and tables based web site, minimum fixed width 740 pixels, some weird gif animation wasting 70% of their screen real estate, and it gets worse when you try to click on something. Sure, it’s a community group, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be a little more professional about it.

In August 2002, FACTS (Federation of Australian Commericial Television Stations), now called CTVA (Commercial Television Australia), complained to the ABA, about C-31 in Sydney and Melbourne selling airtime to RTV (Renaissance TV), community television for the 50+ age group. The ABA replied that community television didn’t come under the commercial regulations violated by the complaint, but at least the commercial stations are taking notice.

For more information, check out the ABA’s Community licenses page, or you can view the actual license applications on their Sydney community TV applications page.

Community radio and television. You don’t have to listen to it, but it is important for your right to freedom of expression that you at least support it.

Bush merchandise made in Burma, an icon for child labor and sexual slavery. Come on GW, move on! (from GLOBALIZE THIS!)

Another weekly dose of stuff. Goodle, for all the good news (via Kevin Fox). Lessig on how he failed to save the public domain. Michael Giagnocavo on disassembling .NET code, brings back sweet memories. Gina Trapani, a Richard BF regular, on how to Help the Googlebot understand your web site (via commoncraft of all places) [coincidentally, I now have the no. 1 Google result for she bangs richard, which is embarrassing]. Collection of old TV test patterns and stuff (from BoingBoing) [by the way, the 11^th March BoingBoing loads 67 items with the page. Come on guys, that’s just nuts!]. Another article on how to reduce spam, more for those with web admin knowledge (via Kuro5hin). Amusing offensive word count for the various versions of Linux kernel source code.

I have no idea why I keep thinking about the Bloggies. Like who really cares? Perhaps it is because so many Australian weblogs were nominated, and actually won categories. How on earth could the fantastic John Howard, Prime Minister have had so many nominations to be in the top 6 for Weblog of the Year? The tyrrany of distance is quickly fading to a distant memory. Now, if only this were the case for us Australian software developers. As great as the John Howard weblog is, it doesn’t seem to have a feed, so it doesn’t make it onto my regular reading list. Anyone want to start a petition?

A timely lesson in research. the null device (cool name), posts on why people have got St. Patricks day wrong, saying St. Patrick was Roman. He quotes Patrick Farley and his Bring Back the Snakes Day post as his source.

According to the History Channel, which is a great history site by the way, St. Patrick was British (assuming Welsh), and taken to Ireland by raiders at the age of 16. Roman? Unlikely.

Then again, Patrick does call his blog Patrick Farley Exposes His Ignorance. I assume this is sarcasm, as he does get the rest of it right.

Another cool Australian photoblog called Jinky Art, which recently won Best Australian Photo Blog in the 2004 Australian Blog Awards. Interesting, considering another Australian photoblog, shutterbug, just won Best Photography of a Weblog in the 2004 Bloggies.

Weblog awards are like the Oscars, we dismiss them because they’re everything we hate about commercialism, blandness and the dumming down of the populous, but we’d all love to win one.

I only discovered William Hung through my brother inlaw, who just happened to be watching it on TV a few months back. Somehow I just managaed to stumble across his web site. Amusing or denegrating? For health reasons, I’m not going to make a judgement. Regardless, I still think his rendition of She bangs is pretty funny.

In mid-2003, U.S. company Deckers started selling australian ugg boots, under the name UGG Australia. The boots are supplied through a company of the same name, whose domain name is owned by Teva Sandals, another U.S. company.

The ugg boots themselves are apparently being made in China, as are those sold locally (here in Australia) by Myer (don’t get me started on their stupid name change from Grace Bros.). The problem is the 30 odd Australia businesses which have been hand making and selling ugg boots for the last 60 years, and are now selling them on the Internet. Deckers are suing companies using the name “ugg”, when you can’t even get “UGG Australia” boots in Australia (Deckers don’t exist here).

This Sydney Morning Herald article covers the full story, including how local manufacturers are being thrown off eBay because Deckers sees it as trademark infringement.

Ugg is a generic term that Australians and Australian businesses have been using for decades. When a U.S. company with no presence in Australia, trademarks our own language and forceably damages our local industry, something must be done.

To quote the Deckers web site:

UGG is a line of authentic sheepskin footwear, popularized in Australia in the 1960s and 1970s. These sheepskin boots, slippers and other footwear styles have high-grade sheepskin linings which act as a natural insulator, keeping feet warm and comfortable.

“…and can no longer be sold or promoted in Australia, because it affects our bottom line.”

Think global, act local. Buy our local product, and tell Deckers what you think about their bottom line. (We have three pairs of boots in our house, proudly Australian made)

Note: As of January 2006, the term has been finally removed again from the Australian Trademark Registry. For more information on why, and the dodgey and deceptive marketing practices of U.S. companies Deckers and Ugg Australia, please see the Wikipedia entry for ugg boots under the section Trademark controversy.

Also please note that I think some of the negative comments below are from competitors trying to trash other retailers. There are a LOT of ugg boots sellers in Australia, and it’s a competitive market, so don’t use this blog as a recommendation for or against any particular retailer.